Yellowstone County – Your Ancestral Past Trail Series

Out in the Boonies (Trip # 1)
Pompeys Pillar
By Dave Dodge
 
Golden, Weatherman Draw, Bean and Wade
Part 1 – Bridger to Bean, 10 July 2003
Find your way to Bridger Montana and proceed through town to the south. After the statue of “Jim” there is a restaurant on the right. The gravel road (get used to that term) that meets the highway is called Cemetery Road. My mileage will start at this point. If you see ZO that means to zero the odometer. Do so now. Keep going south on the highway. Shortly the road will fork, take the Cody, Belfry exit. Proceed 6.6 miles to S. Dry Creek Road and take a right, stop and look at the field on your right. As far as I can tell this is where the town of Golden< used to be. There was a Post Office here from 6/22/1898 until 6/30/1912 and reopened from 1/3/1916 until 6/14/1919. Turn around and turn left onto the highway. ZO. Proceed north 1.1 miles and take a right onto Golden Road. ZO. Go down this road crossing the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone. At 1.4 miles take a right. There should be a BLM sign that says Cottonwood Road. ZO. 3.3 miles south on this road you will come to a very well ventilated BLM sign that says Hatcher Pass. (Road closed) At this intersection look to the SW and you will see a sheepherder monument against the skyline. Some industrious soul put a lot of work into this and it is quit large when you are close to it.  You will stay on Cottonwood Rd (BLM 1001). At 6.6 miles there will be a road to the left. This is Castle Coulee Rd. It is on mixed private and BLM land so be aware of where you are. I use map 36 Billings, Bridger, Powell WY purchased from the BLM. This is one of them ones that are made out of the “tuff” paper so you don’t need more than map folding 101 to get it back in the glove box without tearing it. You can take a left at Castle Coulee and go back a ways and there is an abandoned coal mine on the left to the north. There is a large slag pile and some other junk lying around the area. You will need a four-wheel drive vehicle with lots of clearance to do this. If you can negotiate the crevasse that is Cottonwood Creek you might make it further up the road. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Proceeding down Cottonwood Road enjoying the scenery and the Pryor Mountains off to your east you will see a faint road on the left at 9.8 miles. I call this the north rim of Weatherman Draw. You can go in a little ways on this road and will encounter a road-closed sign. Past the sign is foot or horseback. The history of this area will follow in my second installment. At 10.5 miles you will come to Weatherman Draw on the left. Same thing here, you can drive in until you reach the road-closed sign. On the right leading down this road is what is left of the Maki Cabin. Weatherman Draw has been the site of much discussion about drilling wells in this area. That has pretty much been resolved. Now it is for people to walk and enjoy. I must warn you that this area has a high concentration of “buzz worms”. These are the kind that causes one to holler “snake” and have two movements: a bowel movement and a physical movement. If you are in to hiking though, this is a good dry area to do it. Take lots of water and a camera.

Proceed down the road, keep an eye out to the east, and notice all the caves and rock overhangs in this area. Think back before the dust bowl and there was water in the creek and this was a completely different area. At mile 11.2 there will be a BLM sign advertising Bobcat Pass. I have never seen a bobcat here but somebody might have years ago. As you continue to create dust going down the road stop when you top the crest of the hill at 16.8 miles. This gives you a great view of the Pryor Mountains. A little farther down the road you will find the only sign of living human settlement on Cottonwood Road. Around 19.8 miles you will be in the area where the Bean Post Office was located. I understand it was a box on the Bean’s back porch. Therefore, if you got a postcard and you didn’t get your mail for a few days it’s a good bet your neighbors already knew what the postcard said. This Post Office was in operation from 6/9/1894 to 6/15/1900. At 20.2 miles you will reach the highway. ZO. Take a left to head back to Bridger and home. At 6 miles there is a turnout on the left. Pull in here and look at the ridge to your west. The notch you see is where the pipeline went through. It is also the eastern end of Weatherman Draw. Back in the 1970’s sometime a friend of mine and I rode our motorcycles up that hill and through that notch. Who ever drove the cat that put the pipeline in was crazier than we were. That is a rough climb. This area is now closed to motorized vehicles and no it was not because of me. This is on BLM land and they made the rules. On down the road and at 10 miles there is a road on the right. In this area is where the town of Wade used to be. I guess there was a store here at one time but the country dried up and so did the store.  On down the road through Bridger and on to Billings. South Billings Boulevard is 60.6 miles. I would suggest that this trip only be made when the roads are dry. I have been stuck in this country. Actually the gumbo was so slick that the horse trailer got sideways and dragged the pickup off the road. I waited a couple of hours and it was dry enough to proceed. Stay tuned for part two and I will be sharing other trips out in the boonies. I don’t always keep track of mileage so you will just have to take my word you can make it in one day. Remember you “ain’t” lost if you don’t care where you are!
 
Part 2 - Golden, Weatherman, Bean, Wade (Travel & Hiking)
 

Your trip up the north rim of Weatherman Draw will be about genealogy and mystery.

Park your vehicle at the “X” in Section 30, reached by turning onto the road leading into Weatherman Draw [9.8 miles from start of Cottonwood Road], and park at “Road Closed” sign located about ½ mile down the road,  (most of you that know me know that this is out of character for me, why walk when you have two four wheel drives, two horses and one ATV but this is how to traverse this area as road is closed) proceed to the road to the east cut out of the canyon on your right or south side. This will take you to the top of the canyon. You will follow the path to the northeast. You will come to a natural bowl looking area. This is where everything starts.

This area looks like a natural area to have a sheep camp. (My maternal grandpa was a sheepherder) There is shelter here and some natural barriers. There are names carved on the rimrocks up on the north side. Something went on here because of all the activity in the area of modern day rock carvers. I found the following in a short time in this area.

E. T. Bostic 7/31/05
Allen P. Graham 1900
Lee Ewing Jan 6 1903
Frank Eskew 1901
Harry L. Thom Bridger 1907
Ed Bean Jun 6 188_ (last number too faded to see)

Please note that all of these carvings will be 100 years old and are protected by federal law. Please just observe and don’t add to the antiques. As a genealogist, dead people are my friends.
Now for the fun part.

Elmer Bostic 

Listed in 1900 census in Clarks Fork Township, Carbon County, Montana

Buried in Mountain View Cemetery (formally Bostic Cemetery)

Patented a homestead in Carbon County - 6/22/1908

Allen Graham

Listed in 1900 census in Bowler Township, Carbon County, Montana

Buried in Carbon County

Patented a homestead in Carbon County 9/15/1902

Lee Ewing

Listed in 1900 census in Bowler Township, Carbon County, Montana

Frank Eskew

This guy eluded me, couldn’t find anything in the sources I checked

Harry Thom

Buried in Carbon County

Ed Bean

Couldn’t find anything listed under this name but lots of other Beans
Now for some of the stuff that intrigues me.
Why did all of these people come to this area around 1900? The closest access from where they lived is either down Cottonwood Creek or up it. Only access across from east to west is through Castle Coulee. In addition, in these early days transportation would have been by horse or afoot. When you get to this area you need to go north for the easiest trail. It is more difficult to the south and you end up in Weatherman Draw. This area isn’t close to much of anything. It is truly out in the boonies.

Some other names in this area with reference to Carbon County

Bean-Jordan Bean first Postmaster of Bean in census. A lot of other Beans are listed in census, homestead and burials in Carbon County.                                                 

Ewing-Eurustus Ewing first Postmaster of Ewing, Montana also in census. There are some Ewings buried in Carbon County

Graham-There are various Grahams in census and buried in Carbon County. There is also a Graham trail and cabin listed on Pryor mountain map

Bainbridge-some listed in census, homestead and burial records. Also a Bainbridge trail and cabin listed on Pryor mountain map.

Bostic-Many buried in Carbon County and in census, there was a Bostic cemetery at Bridger now called Mountain View Cemetery (take your pick of the mountains, Pryor or Beartooth Mountains)

Bent-Some listed in census and burial. Also a Bent trail on Pryor mountain map.

Britton-Listed in census and burial records. Also a Britton springs on Pryor mtn. map

Crockett-Burial records and there was a Crockett station on Railroad out of Bowler

Cummings-Burial records and there was a Post Office named Cummings

Wade-Burial records and a town named Wade

Sykes-Burial records and Sykes Ridge on Pryor mountain map

Shriver-Burial records and a Post Office in Pryor mountains named Shriver

Tillet-Burial records and Burnt Timber road on map used to be called Tillet Ridge road on Pryor mountain map

Helt-Burial records and there is a Helt road on Pryor mountain map

Warren-Burial records and there used to be a Post Office at Warren MT

         Note: There is a rock cairn located nearby.

Maki-Burial records Maki cabin at mouth of Weatherman Draw

Weatherman-Burial records and Weatherman Draw on map

Bowler-Listed in census and a Post Office was at Bowler Montana. Also Bowler Flats on map and a cemetery

King-Burial records and there is a King Canyon on the Pryor mountain map

Golden-This town was supposed to be named after a man named Golden but I couldn’t find him in any of the available indexes.

I don’t claim that the names used on the maps are associated with the people I have listed. I just added them to show how many names in this land have ended up on a map that match the names of the people living in the area long ago. Some of these people got me curious by writing their name on sandstone and then I just looked at the map of places I had been and names I remembered and compared them to census records and burial records and homestead records. I know there is lots of information available for these people but I am not going to spend that much time on them. I need to get out in the boonies again. If you want to find more info on your own, please share it with me.

Many of the names you see in this installment will be elaborated on in more detail in future articles so stay tuned.

Remember any day you wake up on the green side of the grass it's going to be a great day. Dave Dodge
 
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